Half Moon Magic
by SorryZurie
Summary: As a baby Samantha Dickens was found on the steps of a orphanage in Colorado. At the age of 20 she's found her way to Mystic Falls in search for the only living relative she has. Yet when she arrives and after several mind blowing experiences she realises that she's found much more than just a family member. Expect scenes with all main season 6 TVD characters.
1. Samantha Dickens

When you find yourself in the bed of a pickup truck heading into a town you know absolutely nothing about, you know you've done something wrong in life. As I sat in the back of the truck waiting to finally arrive in Mystic Falls, I wondered what the reunion would be like. But to be honest in order to have a reunion you have to have known the other person. And that was something that I couldn't claim. I couldn't claim knowing my grandmother. I couldn't claim being a Bennett either. The only thing I could claim was being a witch.

Three thuds to the truck's roof brought me back from my thoughts "Mystic Falls will be about another twenty minutes or so!" The driver shouted.

"Thanks!" I hollered back. The wind had suddenly picked up and I wrapped my arms around my knees for added warmth. As I peered through the back window and into the truck itself I watched as the two little girls played with each other's toys. Sisters, or maybe they're cousins or even just friends. Either way they looked happy. I always wished I had a sibling, but growing up in foster home after foster home repeatedly reminded me that I didn't. The rest of the ride was quick and filled with a sense of nervousness. Where would I go to find her? The only thing I knew was that she lived here. And that piece of information wasn't easy to come by. The entire ordeal of talking with the woman at the orphanage I was first put into was a pain. She was so reluctant to give it to me. Almost as if it were against her will.

"Put your money away." The man behind the wheel commanded as I started to fish some out of my wallet. "I wouldn't feel right taking it from a girl like you." He looked at me for a moment before focusing on the two girls next to him. One of them had started to tug on his sleeve while saying dada.

I readjusted the straps of my backpack before speaking up, "a girl like me—what is that supposed to mean?"

He sighed then scratched as his neck. "With no offense, when I saw you on the side of the road—well it looked like you were running from something." He wasn't entirely right but he also wasn't entirely wrong. "It just doesn't feel right taking your money."

"But I said I'd pay my way." I watched as he shook his head.

"You did, driving you to Mystic Falls was my good deed for the day. You see that bar and grill across the street?" I shook my head. "Use that money to buy yourself a good Mystic Falls welcoming meal and take care of yourself."

Smiling I took a few steps back from the truck. "Thank you." Waving him and his daughters off I jogged over to the grill. "Mystic Grill. Wow this town's name sure is ironic." Upon opening the door my nose was greeted by smells of bacon and beer. I scanned the place twice before finding an open spot at the bar.

"What will it be?" A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes asked from the other side of the bar top.

I surveyed my wallet, I only have forty two dollars left to my name. "What do you have that's less than ten bucks?"

He looked me up and down, still smiling. "Well we've got a pretty good steak and potato dish. It comes with your choice of a soup or salad too."

Rolling my eyes, I tucked my wallet back into my back pocket and slid off the chair. "Ha, ha very funny. I'll just go find somewhere else to eat."

"Hey wait," he began and I turned around to give him another chance. "I wasn't kidding, it's a pretty good meal. Granted it's not under ten bucks, but I get off in about fifteen minutes. I can buy it for you."

With my eyes wide I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. "_Okay, _so I'm definitely not that kind of girl. So I'm just going to go now."

"Whoa, wait what? No, no I meant it like a date. Either you're not the brightest bulb in the shed or I have seriously got to work on my game."

I glared at him for a bit. "So all of a sudden you're calling me dumb?" His smile faded and mine sparked up again. "I'm kidding. But yeah you should totally work on your pick up skills." I sat back down in my chair. "Also, I refuse to let you buy me a steak. I'll settle for an order of fries and a beer."

"I'll take it." He shot right back. "Just wait for me over in that booth while I switch up the cash register with the night shift bar tender." I nodded my head then made my way over to the booth he'd pointed to.

As I waited for his shift to be over my phone rang twice. Each time the caller I.D. read Angelia. She was the woman I was living with and it was either pay her for my half of next month's rent or finally follow my gut. I chose my gut. On the third ring I picked up. "You know you've got some nerve just—running away like you did!" Her voice blared out from the other end.

"Angelia, let's not pretend like you can't come up with rent all on your own. From the minute I started crashing in your spare room we established that it was a temporary stay."

She laughed mockingly. "Nine months isn't temporary sweetie."

Holding my forehead with my free hand I stared down at the table. "Newsflash Angelia, you can't actually do anything about it. You're not struggling to get by worst comes to worst have your dad pay for it."

"You stupid sl—" I hung up before she could say anymore and decided to turn my phone on silent as well. Letting out a gust of air I slunk back into my seat and closed my eyes.

"You look rough." I opened my eyes to the sound of the bartender's voice. My line of sight started at his eyes and ended at the two plates of burgers and fries he was holding. Obviously reading my expression he began to defend himself. "I yelled back just an order of fries, but they gave me this instead. So I mean what am I supposed to do, throw it out?"

I could help but laugh a bit. "Humph yeah, I guess that would be a waste huh?" Taking a bite out of my burger I focused on him. He was still smiling. "So what's your name burger guy?"

He followed my lead and took a bite before speaking, "Matt Donovan. What about you?"

"Samantha Dickens." I watched as he raised his eyebrows. "What? What, what is it?"

"Samantha Dickens—it just sounds a little fake. But I mean I totally get it, you don't want to give out your real name to a complete, _harmless_, guy who sticks his neck out to get you a free gourmet burger." I rolled my eyes and playfully threw a French fry at him.

I dipped a few fries into my ketchup before looking at him. "Dickens does seem like a pretty uncommon and possibly fake name, but I promise you it's not—to a certain degree."

"Lies." He joked.

"Want to know something about me?" When he didn't object I continued. "When I was a baby I was found on the doorstep of an orphanage in Colorado."

"Oh geez," his voice trailed off.

"So the people at their named be Samantha Dickens. Apparently the woman who found me is obsessed with Emily Dickens and she had a nephew named Sam so she named me Samantha. It's kind of funny because no one really ever calls me by my full name. It's either Sam or Sammie." I took another bite out of my burger. "Don't go feeling sorry for me."

He smiled lightly then grabbed a handful of fries. "Alright then Sam, what brings you to Mystic Falls?" I was definitely hesitant to tell him. How much could I say without saying too much? I just met the guy; he's pretty cute so do I really want to ruin it by talking about how I'm supposedly a witch?

Tapping at the near empty glass of beer, I grinned at him. "If you want to know more it'll cost you another one of these."

Chuckling, he slid from out of the booth and grabbed the glass. "Sure thing, I'll be back in a sec." While I waited for him I looked over the crowd of people. From the way everyone seemed to interact with each other I could tell that Mystic Falls was one of those towns you see on TV. The kind of town where everyone knows everything about their neighbor, but not in a creepy way. Just from being in the _Mystic Grill _I knew this was more than just a town, it was a community. "What are you thinking about?"

Matt startled me when he returned with a full glass for me. "Nothing important." I waited until he sat back down. "So where were we? Oh that's right, _you _were asking a billion questions about _me_." I bit down on my lip a bit.

Matt held up his hands in protest, "hey now—not a billion, just one."

"Fine," I began. "After many years in foster care I started to seriously think about my parents and stuff. And after a while I started asking questions. Eventually one of them was answered. When they found me there was a post-it note with the name of a woman on it. They said they thought that maybe it was my mom's name. But they couldn't find anyone to match it. Shay Bennett."

Matt's eyes sparked at the name. "Shay Bennett?"

"Yeah, it was wrong though. The actual the name is Sheila. The ink on the post-it was smudged a bit. So anyway they tracked that name down, turns out it's not that common of a name. I think she may be my grandmother." I took a long pull from my glass. "But enough about me, tell me more about yourself."

Matt stretched his arms and checked the time on his phone. "I actually forgot that I've got to go do something for a friend. I don't mean to run out on you like this, but it's kind of important. If you want you could give me your number and I could call you tomorrow sometime."

Raising an eyebrow, I held my hand out for his phone. "Sure I guess." As I programmed my name and number into his phone I wondered if I had said too much. "Hey look, if I like freaked you out with my life's story I didn't mean to. I'm still working on this problem I have of over sharing information with strangers." I laughed a little and watched as he smiled.

"No, no really. You're fine. I just remembered I'm late—"

"For the thing. With your friend."

He sighed a bit, "yeah." Handing him his phone back I shrugged it off. "Do you have a place to crash tonight?"

I shook my head no. Truthfully I hadn't gotten that far into my plan. And with forty bucks left I don't think it would even be an option. "No, I as probably just going to crash in my car."

Matt stood from his seat. "At the chance of sounding like a complete creep, do you want to stay the night at my place?" I didn't know how to respond. "I mean crashing in a car, that's like the worst. Trust me I would know. I've been there. I could drop you off before I head to my friend's."

Staring at him I could hear the voice of warning shouting in my head. But I ignored it and chugged the rest of my beer. "Yeah okay, sounds like a plan." I slid out from my seat and we headed to entrance. Once we were outside and heading down the street Matt stopped. "What?"

"Did you want to leave your car here or follow me to my place?"

Running my hands through my hair I shrugged my shoulders. "I lied. I don't have a car?"

Matt's jaw dropped and then he shot me a half smile. "What? So where were you actually going to sleep?" I looked behind him at the park in the middle of the town square.

"That looks like a pretty good bench." He had nothing to say, all he did was shake his head in disbelief and laugh. By the time we made it to his house I was thoroughly exhausted. "You live in a mansion?" As I stared at how huge it was I tried to picture Matt living inside of it. The house and the Matt that I'd met back at the bar seemed like two completely different concepts of things.

"It's the governor's mansion and technically my friend's but I'm house sitting for him until he gets back." Matt corrected me as we hopped out of his truck.

Closing the door shut behind me I followed him up the trail to the front door. "Oh where'd he go?"

"Backpacking." He unlocked the door for me and stood there watching me.

I squinted my eyes at him. "So am I supposed to like _kiss _you now or something?"

Matt shook his head no while smiling. "Nah, I was just waiting for you to go inside. When you go up those stairs and turn down the left hallway there's a bedroom on each side. You can choose whichever one of those you like."

I pointed over my shoulder into the house. "You're not going to come in and show me all of this? Oh wait, you're late for your thing. Well never mind, thanks for letting me crash here. I'll see you in the morning I guess." I headed for the stairs and glanced over my shoulder at Matt who seemed to be sighing in relief. We waved to each other just before he closed and locked the door. "Cute but definitely weird."


	2. Next in Line

The next morning I woke up to the sound of music being played somewhere within the mansion. Checking my phone for the time it read eleven fifteen. "Crap." I pulled my pants back on and combed my fingers through my hair. I stood in front of the floor length mirror on the wall next to the door. I looked like a wreck, without a shower there was no chance of looking half way descent. Giving up, I followed the sound of the music and found Matt in the kitchen eating a bagel. "Hey."

"Oh hey Samantha."

"Sam's fine." He nodded his head. "Sorry I overslept. I would have been out of her earlier than this. But I guess sleep got the best of me."

Matt shrugged his shoulders. "It's cool. If you're hungry there're some more bagels in the pantry over there and I've got some cream cheese in the fridge." I took him up on his offer and found myself a cinnamon raisin bagel and popped it in the toaster. "So what's your plan for today?"

I thought about that for a moment while I hovered over the toaster. "You know I'm not really sure. They couldn't give me an address—something about it being against policy. So really all they could tell me was that this was the last place she moved to. I guess I figured I'd go to the police station." Glancing over my shoulder I could see Matt's face turning grim. "What?"

He turned the music down a bit and wiped his hands clean. "I wasn't helping a friend last night."

I smirked. "That's not really that big of a shocker."

"When you told me you were looking for Shelia Bennett I sort of freaked." I had no idea where he was going with this and it started to worry me. What was he so reluctant to tell me? "She um—she passed away three years ago." As he finished his sentence I could feel my heart sinking. Leaning against the counter I let his words set in. The sound of the toaster startled me a bit but not enough to stop me from thinking about what I'd just been told. "Last night I went to talk to a friend who was pretty close to her granddaughter."

My eyes lit up at the sound of that. There was another person? I had a sister? "Where is she? Do you think I could meet up with her?" And then he shook his head no. "I she in another state or something?"

"She died over the summer." I turned around to grab my bagel out of the toaster and apply cream cheese to it. I didn't want to verbally say it, but I knew something along these lines would happen. I never really thought I'd come face to face with my Shelia, I was only ever hoping I would.

Taking a large bite out of it I leaned back against the countertop. "Well I've got forty bucks to my name, I'm hundreds of miles away from the job and steady place to stay I left behind. I'm legitimately screwed."

Matt rinsed the plate he was using off next to me in the sink. "You could stay here for a while until you get back on your feet. I think I could even put in a good word for you at the Grill. I practically own the place without actually owning it."

I smiled widely at him, admiring how good of a guy he seemed to be. "Well that doesn't sound too bad especially if I'm right about something."

"What's that?"

"Well if all the guys in town are as sweet as you it could turn out to be a great place to stay for a while." I took another bite and sat down at the kitchen island.

He chuckled. "Nope, guys like me come a dime a dozen. I'm off work today, if you want I could take you to Shelia's grave. The cemetery is right along the outskirts of Mystic Falls, it'd be kind of a long walk from here."

I pulled my hair back into a pony tail while letting out a gust of air. "I'd rather go on my own, but thanks for the offer."

"No problem. Well then I've also got to go see a friend at Whitmore College. If you don't want to be stuck in the house all day you could tag along." I took him up on his offer and about an hour and one shower later we were on the road. Whitmore was about thirty minute drive outside of Mystic Falls. The campus was beautiful and very lively.

As we drove to the visitor's parking lot I watched as a few guys in football jerseys messed around in front of a sign that read 'End of Season Bonfire Celebration'. "There's a bonfire tonight? That sounds like it could be fun."

Matt pulled into the first parking space he could find and we both got out of his truck. "Yeah, we could go if you want. Caroline, the girl we're meeting up with right now, will probably be going. And knowing Caroline she's probably the head of the committee for it."

I took note of that. "So she's that kind of girl." He didn't follow me. "People who are head of committees are typically super bossy. They like things to be done a very specific kind of way and they _have _to call the shots." Matt laughed.

"Yeah, that's pretty much Caroline. But she's also probably the nicest girl you'll ever meet. I'll just text her and see where she is." I waited for him to be done. Leaning against the side of the truck I watched as people went in and out of different buildings. Some students sat in the grass eating and flipping through textbooks while others just sat and enjoyed the mid afternoon heat and sun. "So Caroline said she's in the library but we could wait for her in her dorm room."

I followed next to Matt, "do you go to college here too?"

"Nah, I couldn't swing the tuition. So for now I'm stuck working at the Grill. I've been working there for about three years now. You'd think they'd promote me to manager." I winced at the thought of working at a bar for three years straight.

"That sucks." We headed inside a dorm building and up four flights of stairs. "I'm basically in the same boat though. Back in Colorado once I turned eighteen I got out of the foster care system and got a job at the foster care organization I was in. I hated the homes they put me, each time I was put in a new one I made a promise to myself that if I could help someone find the right home I would. So that promise lead me to the field of social work."

Matt smirked a bit. "If you have a degree in social work then we aren't really in the same boat."

"I never said I have a degree. I work as a secretary. My dream would be to get a degree in it, but money's always been a bit tight for me. I just figure it'll happen when it's supposed to happen." Three doors down to the right and we were waiting inside Caroline's room. The place was massive. "Wow."

Matt sat down on the mini sofa against the far wall. "Yeah, leave it to Caroline to make sure she got the biggest room." Taking a tour of the place I landed on the bookshelf. There were the typical titles like _To Kill a Mockingbird _and _In Cold Blood_ but then there was something a little different. I grabbed a book from the shelf, there was no title on its spine. "What's that?"

The leather was old and worn, there were two cloth straps tying it closed. "I don't know, there's no title on the cover." I opened it to the first page and the script immediately stood out to me. "This book shall belong to the next Bennett witch in line. What the hell?" Matt bolted from his seat and over to me. "Is this some kind of joke? Like is this a cook book or something."

"Um I don't think you should be going through Caroline's stuff." Matt suggested while trying to take the book from me.

I slapped his hand away. "Well according to this book, it's not Caroline's it's supposed to be mine. You know after I found out about Shelia, I did some research on her last name. Bennett was the name of a coven of witches who apparently originate from Salem. I thought it was all just some crazy mumbo-jumbo but I guess not." My head was spinning as I walked across the room away from Matt. Flipping through the pages I read words and chants for different kinds of spells. It was definitely not a cook book.

Matt walked over and stood in front of me. "Finding a card with the name Bennett on it doesn't make you a Bennett."

I shut the book and took a step back. "Oh wow Matt, why don't you tell me how you really feel?" He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands before looking at me again. "Look I know how crazy I may sound, but _finding _that card and her name. It's the only hope of a really familial connection I've ever had. Do I believe in witches? Of course not, the closest thing we have to witches today are the ones in movies." I sat down on the foot of one of the beds in the room. "Just having this book though, it gives me hope that I was supposed to be a part of something. You wouldn't understand."

Matt sat down next to me. "Look I get it. Growing up I didn't really have the most stable family. I never knew my dad, my mom was always gone for weeks at a time, and my sister well she wasn't always present if you know what I mean. I was basically on my own. So I get wanting to be a part of something real. I really do."

Feeling the leather between my fingers I let out a sigh before pushing up from the bed. "What's the harm in looking at it for a bit?" I turned to head for the door when it opened and a tall blonde girl stood before me. "Caroline?"

Her eyes were fixed on the book in my hands. "What is she doing with that? Matt?"

"This is Sam. She thinks Shelia Bennett may have been her grandma." Matt explained.

Caroline took a few steps into the room and finally looked me in the face. "Grahams? She _thinks _Grahams is her grandmother?"

"I am standing right here people." I pointed out. "When I was a baby I was put on the steps of an orphanage they found a note with Shelia Bennett's name on it. I came to Mystic Falls for answers, to make a long story short." Caroline smiled but I could tell she didn't mean it.

She folded her arms across her chest. "What are you doing with that? That belonged to a friend of mine." My eyes grew wide with interest.

"You knew Shelia's other granddaughter too?"

"Yes, I knew her granddaughter, her singular granddaughter. She was my best friend. Were you planning on leaving with that?" The more we talked the snippier and snippier her voice got. I knew just what kind of girl she was. She was the kind of girl I constantly avoided back during my foster care upbringing. The one that would stalk around the school or the playground bossing all the quiet ones around. She would have been the one to boss me around that is until I finally stood up for myself. The point being that I knew how to handle her.

I glanced over my shoulder at Matt who was standing like he'd just been thrown into a lion's den. "I was just going to check it out a bit. It's not like her only granddaughter would mind, she's dead isn't she?" I mocked the word only and watched as Caroline's hard exterior broke even if only for a second before returning to normal.

She yanked the book from out of my hands and stared me straight in the eyes. "Go outside and wait for Matt by his truck. You never found this book and we never had this conversation." I turned around to face Matt, he was still standing there in confusion.

Turning back around to face Caroline I snatched the book back from her. "Right, so I don't know who you think you are but you can't tell me what to do. So I'm going to take this book, I'm going to check it out for a day or two and then I'll give it to Matt to give it back to you. It's this thing called compromise." Rolling my eyes I walked around her and over to the doorway. "Matt when you're done I'll be downstairs. It was—interesting meeting you Caroline." Heading downstairs I wondered how Matt, who seemed like such an enjoyable person, could be friends with a girl like her. And then it suddenly dawned on me. They obviously were an item at some point. "Ugh." I shook the horrible thought away and continued my way outside.


End file.
